Insights

Washington – June 26, 2023: Intellectual Asset Management recognized Crowell & Moring in its IAM Patent 1000 – The World’s Leading Patent Practitioners guide, awarding the firm a gold band ranking as one of the top four firms handling patent litigation and transactions in Belgium, and a silver ranking for the firm’s Chicago office. The firm was also recommended nationally in the United States for trade secrets litigation. This marks the tenth consecutive year that the firm has been ranked in the guide in Belgium.

Washington – June 30, 2022: Intellectual Asset Management recognized Crowell & Moring in its IAM Patent 1000 – The World’s Leading Patent Practitioners guide, awarding the firm a gold band ranking as one of the top four firms handling patent litigation and transactions in Belgium, and a silver ranking for the firm’s Chicago office. This marks the ninth consecutive year that the firm has been ranked in the guide in Belgium. The guide also recommended Brussels partner Kristof Roox in the gold band; partner Jan-Diederik Lindemans in the silver band; and senior counsel Jurgen Figys in the bronze band.

Brussels – July 8, 2021: Intellectual Asset Management recognized Crowell & Moring in its IAM Patent 1000 – The World’s Leading Patent Practitioners guide, awarding the firm a gold band ranking as one of the top four firms handling patent litigation and transactions in Belgium. This marks the eighth consecutive year that the firm has been ranked in the guide. The guide also recognized Brussels partners Kristof Roox and Jan-Diederik Lindemans, and counsel Jurgen Figys.

Unitary Patents are being granted and the Unified Patent Court is up and running as of June 1, 2023.  Since the 1970’s, there have been attempts at establishing a unitary European patent that would cover multiple European countries and would be enforced by a single court system.  This type of system is in contrast to the system known since 1973 of granting European Patents by the European Patent Office (EPO) and validating the European Patent in designated European countries, wherein each validated patent is enforced in the national court associated with the validated patent.

On Monday, March 27, 2023, the Supreme Court held oral argument regarding the proper legal standard for patent enablement in Amgen v. Sanofi. This closely-watched case is of great interest because it is the first time the Court has addressed section 112 of the Patent Act since it addressed indefiniteness in 2014. The case has divided the pharmaceutical industry where some pharmaceutical companies have filed amicus briefs in support of Amgen (AbbVie, Biogen, Bristol Myers Squibb, GSK and Merck Sharp & Dohme), while others have filed amicus briefs in support of Sanofi (AstraZeneca, Bayer, Eli Lilly, Fresenius Kabi, Genentech, Gilead, Johnson & Johnson and Viatris).

On April 28, 2022, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) handed down a judgment that is expected to significantly improve the chance of patent owners being granted a preliminary injunction before national EU patent courts, and, most likely, also before the future divisions of the Unified Patent Court (UPC).